Crude Awakening

Soaring gasoline prices. Unprecedented corporate profits. Is it okay to hate Exxon Mobil? If you do, you’ll have plenty of company. In a recent NBC–Wall Street Journal poll that asked Americans what worries them most, 45 percent said $3-a-gallon gas. That was the number one answer, beating out a nuclear Iran, illegal immigration, and civil unrest in Iraq. When asked what was responsible for the spike in prices, people were more than happy to blame Big Oil. And no one’s bigger than Exxon Mobil.